Nashville Sit Ins

The Nashville sit-ins started some three
months before the sit-ins at Greensboro.
Tutored by James Lawson, the students who took part in the Nashville sit-ins
were followers of Ghandi’s belief in the use of non-violence. Lawson was later
to mentor the SouthernChristian
Leadership Council on non-violent protests.

The students cause was identical to the
one that was to gain national fame in Greensboro – an end to segregation.

The Nashville sit-ins started on
February 13th, 1960, and downtown department stores were targeted.
African Americans could shop at these stores and spend their money – but they
were refused service at the lunch counters.

The protest soon attracted the support
of other students (black and white) and the numbers soon went into the hundreds.
The organisers of the sit-in were concerned that not all those involved in the
protest had been schooled in non-violent techniques. Therefore, two students,
Bernard Layfayette and John Lewis produced a handout for all those involved with
their ’10 Rules of Conduct’. These were the required standards for all those
who were supporting the protest. The rules stated:

Do Not:

Strike
back nor curse if abusedLaugh
outHold
conversations with a floor walkerLeave
your seat until your leader has given you permission to do soBlock
entrances to stores outside nor the aisles inside

Do:

Show
yourself friendly and courteous at all timesSit
straight: always face the counterReport
all serious incidents to your leaderRefer
information seekers to your leader in a polite mannerRemember
the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin
Luther King. Love and non-violence is the way.

Such rules were not needed for the first
few sit-ins as they were orderly. The protesters went to a lunch counter,
ordered food, were refused and left the premises. However, towards the end of
February, the mood of the store managers had become more ugly and supporters of
segregation gathered at the stores concerned, along with the demonstrators.

February 27th was a particularly
violent day. Eighty one students were arrested by the police – but none of the
pro-segregationists. The sit-in students were charged with ‘disorderly
conduct’.

The events of that day did not put-off
the demonstrators – if anything, it spurred them on. They also received more
support from students who were appalled by their treatment. Such events
attracted even more media attention and by April 1960, the leadership of the
sit-ins decided to expand their movement so that they boycotted all downtown
businesses in Nashville associated with segregation. The action was so
successful that it is calculated that 98% of the African American population in
Nashville took part in the boycott.

April 19th 1960 was a turning
point in the history of the sit-ins. To start with, a bomb partly destroyed the
home of a black lawyer – Alexander Looby - who had defended many of the
students who had been arrested during the sit-ins. In protest, about 4,000
people marched to Nashville’s City Hall. Here, the leaders of the march met
with the city’s mayor – Ben West. The mayor, in front of witnesses, agreed
that segregation was immoral and unacceptable. Just a few weeks later, six lunch
counters in Nashville changed their policy on segregation and desegregated their
counters and started to serve anyone regardless of their colour. Whereas the bus
boycott in Montgomery had been
successful because of its economic clout, there had been no overt comment by
anyone within the city's authority about the immorality of segregation. For a
mayor to do this, combined with the impact on a city’s local economy, was a
major achievement for a state such as Tennessee.

The story of the Nashville sit-ins did
not end with the desegregation of lunch counters. Towards the end of 1960, a
number of the leaders of the movement helped to found the Student Non-violent
Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC). Diane Nash became a full-time SNCC field worker
while John Lewis was elected the leader of SNCC in 1962. Dr James Bevell is
credited with developing the idea for a March on Washington

Several of the SNCC leaders, who had
honed their leadership skills during the sit-ins, became involved in the Freedom
Rides. The sit-in leaders were also involved in helping to organise the Selma to
Montgomery march.

Most of those who led the sit-ins became
major figures in the civil rights campaign. Diane Nash was appointed to a
national committee by J F Kennedy
that promoted the 1964 CivilRights
Act. John Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 after two decades of being
recognised as one of the civil rights movement’s
major figures.

The Rev James Lawson – who taught about the
importance of a non-violent campaign – was expelled from Vanderbilt University
Divinity School for his part in the sit-ins – but has since been honoured by
the university.